Rebel With A Cause (27 page)

The cop still in the room noted that down on a notepad, and came over to Katie.

“Miss?” he asked questioningly. “Miss, I’m going to need your name. My name’s Constable Schwartz. I’m going to need to ask you a few questions.”

Kaitlyn barely heard the man. She was so lost in her own world. All she could think about was Carter. He couldn’t die on
her,
he was the love of her life. He was her fiancé. They were getting married.
He
couldn’t
die on her. They had so much left to live for! A wedding, a marriage, kids, grandkids!

“No,” she whispered. She was rooted to the spot where she stood. She couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. People were speaking to her, trying to catch her attention, but it was if she was trapped inside her head. She couldn’t hear or see anyone. She kept replaying the scene with Carter over and over
in her head. All she could hear was him choking out “I love you”.

She’d had enough. She couldn’t cope anymore. She felt herself fall sideways, and then everything went black.

She woke up in an unfamiliar bed.
There was a very annoying tube taped to her hand, and she felt extremely groggy.

What the hell was she doing here?

She closed her eyes, trying to remember
something. Only, she couldn’t. Something was stopping her.

She looked around the room and saw nothing but white. White walls, white floors, white bed sheets, white everything. It was quite disconcerting.

She noticed a small remote hooked onto her bed, so she picked it up and studied it. There were buttons for
Up, Down, Emergency,
and
Nurse
.

She hit the
Nurse
button
.
A low buzzing sound emanated from the corridor and a woman entered the room.

“Well hello there, dear,” she said kindly. She reminded Kaitlyn of how a grandmother should act.

“Where am I?” Kaitlyn asked nervously. “And what am I doing here?”

The woman smiled at her. “Now, not to worry, dear, but you were in a bit of a scuffle.”

Kaitlyn raised her eyebrows incredulously.
“A scuffle?”

The woman smiled and patted her knee. “Don’t worry, dear, the policeman will be here later today to explain.”

Kaitlyn frowned. “What the hell is going on?”

The woman smiled. “I’m afraid if you don’t remember, I can’t tell you.”

Kaitlyn wanted to scream. This woman didn’t understand. There was something at the back of Kaitlyn's mind
. It was pressing, like a headache, but much worse.

She just wanted to remember!

“Come on!” she yelled at the woman.
“What the hell is going on?!”

The woman frowned. “Now, now, there’s no need to take that tone with me, young lady.”

This time, Kaitlyn did scream. She grabbed the phone beside her bed and furiously punched in Carter’s number. It rang and rang and rang
, and then T-Man answered.

“T-Man?” she asked, surprised. “Where’s Carter?”

On the other end of the line, T-Man frowned.
“Katie? Where the hell are you?”

“Uh, I’m in hospital,” she replied, biting her lip. “Why are you answering Carter’s phone?”

T-Man sighed.
“
I know you’re in hospital. I meant what ward? I haven’t been to visit you yet.
Look, Katie, do you remember what happened two days ago?”

For the second time that day, Kaitlyn wanted to scream. “No, and the nurse won’t tell me. Why? What happened?”

T-Man sighed again.
“Meet me out the front of the hospital in five. It’s too much to explain over the phone, and it’s too hard without seeing the evidence. You need to see it for yourself.”

They ended the phone call, and Kaitlyn rushed to get dressed. She dumped the hospital gown on her bed and left it rumpled and messy. She didn’t care about her bed, or the gown, or anything. Something was wrong, and she needed to find out what.

She looked outside, and noted that her room was close to the exit. It was also far away from the
nurse’s station.

She creeped out towards the elevators, and went down to ground level. She walked out of the front entrance, and no one batted an eye. She would have laughed, if it weren’t for the fact that she had no idea what was going on.

T-Man was waiting for her. When she saw him, his face was set in a grim line.

“What happened?” she asked, really worried now. “T-Man, what’s going on?”

He looked at her and wrapped her in a hug. “I’m sorry, Katie,” he whispered. “It’s Carter. He’s not doing so well.”

She pulled back and gulped. “Not doing so well? What’s that supposed to mean?”

He grabbed her hand and led her through winding corridors – white, like
her own hospital room – until she was dizzy. It was so hard to keep track of where she was going.

They stopped when they reached what was possibly the scariest sight she’d ever seen in her life. The doors to the Intensive Care Unit were in front of them, the letters ICU in bright red on the door.

“I’m nervous,” she confessed.

T-Man sighed. “You need to be prepared, Katie. After he was shot…”

“He was
shot?
” she whispered angrily. “And you didn’t tell me?”

T-Man looked at her tiredly. “Katie, while you’ve been gone, I’ve been looking after Carter. I’m his next-of-kin, and I told them I was yours, too. I’ve been making decisions regarding both of you, and I’m tired. Can you please just focus on Carter? I swear, now that you’re better, you can look after him, and I can go home and sleep.”

Now that Kaitlyn looked at T-Man, she notic
ed the dark bags under his eyes. She hadn’t noticed them at first, because his skin was so dark anyway.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

He shrugged.
“Doesn’t matter.”

She wrapped her arms around him in a hug. “So, after he was…shot?”

T-Man looked at her. “After he was shot, they had to rush him into surgery. Now, they got the bullet out, but he’s still in a pretty serious condition. He needs rest, so the doctors put him in
an induced coma. Now, it’s just a waiting game until he wakes up.”

She closed her eyes
. She couldn’t believe it. Carter couldn’t be dead. He was always the strong one, the reliable one. How could he be in a coma?

“I want to see him,” she whispered. “Take me to see Carter.”

T-Man nodded and pressed the buzzer for entrance. A nurse came to the doors, looked out, and switched on the intercom.

“State your name, the patient you are visiting, and your relationship to the patient,” she said tonelessly. She was obviously bored. Kaitlyn didn’t think she should be working in a hospital if she was bored.

T-Man answered for them.
“Arthur Harris and Kaitlyn
Johnson, here to see Carter Hawke.
Next-of-kin and fiancée.”

The nurse nodded. “Come on in.” She pressed the button to open the doors and waved them in. The impression Kaitlyn got from her was that she didn’t care who visited the patients, as long as she got her paycheque.

Kaitlyn followed T-Man inside. He led her along an ominously empty, white corridor

“Be prepared, Katie,” T-Man said. “He doesn’t exactly look like himself.”

She took a deep breath and nodded at T-Man. He opened the door and she got her first
glimpse of Carter. He looked pale and drawn, not like Carter at all. His dark hair was limp and in bad need of a wash. He had bags under his eyes. He looked frail.

“Oh my god,” she whispered. “Carter.” She rushed to his side and grabbed his hand.
“Oh, Carter.”

T-Man walked up next to her and placed his hands on her shoulders

“Not the
same,
is he?” he commented.

She shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. “No,” she whispered. Her voice was thick with emotion. “T-Man, did De do this?”

T-Man looked at Kaitlyn. “Are you remembering something, Katie?”

She shook her head. “I wish. All I see is an empty room, and blood.
Lots of blood.
”

T-Man sighed. “It would be nice if you could remember something. The cops want to talk to you.
At the moment, you’re the only one awake. Aria’s dead, Carter’s in a coma…”

“Aria’s dead?”

T-Man rubbed her shoulders a little. “Katie, I think you should sit down.”

She sat down, doing as she was told. She couldn’t believe it. Aria, dead; Carter, in a coma; she was the only one available, and she couldn’t remember a thing!

It was awful.

“T-Man,” she began hesitantly. “Can you take me to De’s house? I have a feeling that if I went back and saw it, saw where it
happened,
I might be able to remember.”

T-Man looked at her.
“Really, Katie?
Are you sure?”

She nodded and sniffed, wiping a tear away with her sleeve. “I have to. It’s where De raped me, and that’s what
started it all. What De did, it started the crusade for revenge. If I go back, and spend time in his house, maybe I could remember.”

T-Man sighed. “I guess. But we’ll have to tell the police you don’t remember anything, and they’ll have to escort you.”

She nodded and sat on the edge of Carter’s bed. T-Man let go of her and left the room. Kaitlyn knew he was going to notify the police of her decision.

She sat there, holding Carter’s hand, and wishing desperately that she could re-wind time. She wanted to go back, all the way back to before she and Carter split up the first time. She wanted to tell him she loved him, and that she would never leave him. He meant the world to her.

It was sitting there on Carter’s bed, staring at his gaunt, empty face, when she broke down in tears.

She couldn’t
stand
everything that De had done. He’d done many evil things, like killing his daughter, attacking vulnerable girls, killing his girlfriend, and landing Carter in hospital. It was unforgiveable
. Someone needed to make Deangelo
Carboni
pay.

Later that afternoon, Kaitlyn and T-Man were in the back of a police car on the way to De’s. T-Man had insisted on coming with her, as moral support.

Earlier in the day, Kaitlyn had discharged herself, against doctor’s orders, and told the police everything she knew.

Which, sadly, wasn’t much.

She’d told the police that she knew Aria was dead, and by De’s hand. She told them that she knew De had put Carter in hospital, but not why.

The police had accepted that, and agreed to take her to De’s house, under police supervision. Constable Schwartz, the officer from the day it happened, was one of their escorts. He was glad to see that Kaitlyn was ok – except for the memory loss, of course.

The other officer with them was
a female, Officer Lauren Watson. She was one of the cops who had been surrounding De’s house, eventually storming it after waiting for so long.

Constable Schwartz –
neither Kaitlyn nor
T-Man knew his first name – drove them to the scene of the crime. Kaitly
n felt her heart start pounding
as
they got
closer
to De’s house. Consciously, she didn’t know why she reacted that way. What she didn’t know was that it was her subconscious reminding her of the horrors that had occurred there.

They pulled into De’s driveway, and everyone turned to stare at Kaitlyn. She was a faint shade of green.

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” she whispered. Her stomach was heaving, and she was afraid to open her mouth.

T-Man grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her into his arms.

“It’s ok,” he soothed. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“Although it would help if you
did
do it,” Constable Schwartz interrupted loudly. “We need to know everything that happened, so we can put Mr
Carboni
away for good. At the moment, he’s only charged with attempted murder, because the other woman
we found
with you was already dead when we arrived at the scene.”

Kaitlyn pressed her lips together and nodded. They all hopped out of the car and
walked up to De’s house.
They
walked up the three steps to his front door and the female officer snapped on some gloves.

“Are you
absolutely
sure?” T-Man asked. “We can always turn away and go back to the hospital.”

She shook her head. “No, I need to do this. I need to get justice for Aria, and for Carter. He almost died for me. I can’t let De get away with it.
I
was the intended victim, so it’s up to me.”